The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1950 Chevy 3100 Tailpipe

I'm looking for info or pics showing the original routing of the tailpipe on a 50 Chevy. I found these photos but I am not sure what they show is correct.

Did the pipe curve down like that roughly at the end of the frame, or did it exit out from under the bumper?

Mine is straight with no curve. No one ever did any custom work on this truck so I believe the system that's on it now is pretty much a copy of whatever was on it before.

Factory Assembly Manual diagrams appear to show a straight pipe for 3100.

3105, 06, 07, 16 curves slightly to the driver side under the frame rail, exiting under the frame rail and a few inches beyond the end of it.

3102, 03, 04, 12 curves slightly toward driver side a couple inches past the edge of the frame rail

I just went out and looked at mine. There is a very slight downward bend. When standing up and looking at it, its hard to tell that it curves. I had to get under to see it. It seems its just enough for the tip to be below the bottom edge of the bumper

The original tailpipe had a slight turndown on the rear. If you want to get one bent up, here's the bend cards for AD trucks (courtesy of another 'bolter who posted them a while back - sorry, I don't remember who to give them credit.) You'd need to find a shop that can do that for you. A big one in Anchorage just gave me the deer in the headlights look when I asked them about it.

Bend card? What's that?

If their computerized machine can't do it for them, they're helpless.

Doesn't look straight to me.

The attached pic of the FAM page shows a downward curve for 3102, 3103, and 3112 (all chassis models) and 3104 (pickups)

Here's a shot of the FAM page.

Apparently they are helpless. But they wanted a bent wire to go by. I found a shop who actually has the machinery to use a bend card.

Ya, that confused me a little. The page before that one shows 3100 with a straight pipe labeled tailpipe.

I guess it means it's straight out of the muffler until you get to the very end and then turn the page to see the other models I listed?

Can't be straight out of the muffler or it would hit the axle. There's a bend up over the axle, then back down to level and a slight turndown at the very end. My tailpipe bent per the bend card is sitting in my garage. I can take a photo of it if anyone wants to see it.

Your photo looks like almost a 90 degree bend, but the bend card calls for a 45 degree bend.

The middle image does look similar to the photos I posted, although the downward curve appears to be more pronounced than the FAM.

The differences between the two cards and specs is interesting. I had to turn to looking up the MFG. NO's on the cards to try and figure out more details as I didn't right off see that they were laying out two different pipes altogether.

I did some peeking through GM Partswiki and found that the GM# 3693715 is for the primary "exhaust pipe" (before the muffler), while the GM# 3705359 refers to the "tail pipe" section.

If I'm reading the second card (tail pipe section) correctly, the tail pipe exit end should have a bend that points at a 44 degree downward angle, which is just shy of half of a full 90 degree down turn. That corresponds to the FAM diagram.

Bowtie john, I think your tail pipe exit down turn is a little more pronounced than the FAM or bend card indicates, but isn't terribly far off the mark unless your going for a concourse restoration. Hope this helps answer your question.

Dan, you're reading the bend cards backwards. There's a F (just off the page to the right) and an R that indicate Front and Rear. So the 44 degree bend, is the upturn to clear the axle. The rear bend is 45 degrees down at zero degrees rotation of the pipe.

FYI for anyone getting a tailpipe bent from the bend card , it specifies 1-7/8 tubing, but that's not readily available anymore, so mine was 2", which fits the muffler that came with my truck.

Thanks for getting me reset Kevin. I saw the F on left and R on right of first card and just supposed the second card was oriented the same way. Odd that the cards are flipped in direction where the first one reads left to right while the tail pipe card reads right to left.